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Ending mandatory sentencing policies for second-time drug dealers is a step in the right direction — and one I hope my own state of Virginia will follow ("House votes to drop mandatory terms for 2nd-time drug dealers," March 23). Not only is the legislation politically sound, it is cost effective and morally correct. Mandatory sentences for nonviolent offenses have not resolved the larger issues our society faces: addiction, poverty, inequality and the breakdown in family structures. Mandatory sentences often beget more of the very problems they are intended to solve by increasing the likelihood of people becoming repeat offenders due to the lack of job opportunities when...

Related "Drug Trafficking" Articles

Ending mandatory sentencing policies for second-time drug dealers is a step in the right direction — and one I hope my own state of Virginia will follow ("House votes to drop mandatory terms for 2nd-time drug dealers," March 23).
Not only is...

Bird River Road bends and gives up its memories.
"That's where Adam's real dad lived," Christine Samuels says, nodding out the car window as she heads down the familiar road.
She was 17 and still in high school when Adam was born. "We...

This roundup of crime briefs from around the area isn't meant to be a comprehensive compilation of Maryland crime news, but a snapshot of some of the newsworthy incidents from across our region.
Here's a look at some of the crime that's happened recently...

A drug dealer caught transporting more than 60 pounds of cocaine and heroin to the Baltimore area in a motor home quickly flipped on his customers and helped authorities bring down nine men, according to court records.Four men charged in the case —...

In what a Baltimore County judge called "one of the oddest drug cases I've seen," an Ivy League-educated psychiatrist and an Army veteran were each sentenced Monday to six months in jail after prosecutors said they ran a "molly" lab in...

A Baltimore County Detention Center corrections officer is charged with smuggling Suboxone into the county jail.
Police said on Monday that Melvin Jerome Hodges, 31, brought Suboxone into the facility for distribution by an inmate. He was identified...

After an investigation by the Harford County Narcotics Task Force, four Harford County men were indicted by a Harford County Grand Jury on charges of heroin distribution.
It's part of Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler's ongoing commitment to fighting the threat...

Two former corrections officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center have been sentenced to prison terms for smuggling drugs and other contraband as part of the Black Guerrilla Family racketeering conspiracy at the jail, federal prosecutors announced...

Police seized more than 4 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of about $400,000 during a traffic stop on I-95 in Harford County earlier this week. Members of the Metropolitan Area Drug Task Force has been tracking a drug shipment Monday that began in...

The recent dismissal of charges against a suspected drug dealer by U.S. District Judge George Russell III based on "inconsistencies" in the warrant is just another example to support why there is so much criminal activity, especially drug...

A Glen Burnie man who accidentally shot his 23-year-old son in the stomach with a shotgun Tuesday was charged with drug dealing and gun charges after police found marijuana in the home and discovered he was prohibited from owning firearms.Ronald Phelps,...

In Baltimore City, approximately 20,000 people were arrested for drug-related offenses annually in 2012 and 2013; nearly three quarters for simple possession. And while there has been a great deal of discussion over the last few years regarding the...

In response to the recent letter from Stan White of Dillon, Colo. ("Fight heroin by legalizing pot," March 3), I would point out that the disease of addiction is not drug-specific. I do agree with him that people who buy weed "on the...

On a cool evening in April 2012, a Range Rover drove away from a home in the Arlington section of Northwest Baltimore. When the car parked a few miles away, police finally tied a suspected drug dealer to a stash house, Detective Ramon Lugo wrote in a...

Five men, including one who led police on a 2013 high speed chase that ended in a crash in Harford County, have all been sentenced in connection with what federal prosecutors say was a multi-state drug distribution conspiracy.
The leader of the ring,...

When his National Guard company deployed to Afghanistan in 2013, Derrick Jones could have retired. Instead, the 23-year veteran went to the war zone to "see that the mission was a complete success," according to one of his supervisors.But his...

Two Maryland natives were among four Wesleyan University students arrested Tuesday in connection with about a dozen hospitalizations among people who took a party drug known as Molly.
The students, including one from Lutherville and another from...

Calling heroin a crisis that crosses state boundaries, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said Thursday that his office will join counterparts in the Northeast to share information and jointly prosecute drug traffickers.
"We will have a...

Shawn Oliver Jr. closed 2014 with a family trip to Walt Disney World, but the New Year was not so magical for the 21-year-old Baltimore man.
Shortly after returning from Florida, Oliver found himself locked up at the Baltimore City Detention Center. It...